| |
|
|
| Employee Health & Wellness |
| Meeting the Needs of Working Mothers |
By now you’ve heard of the popular trend to provide “work-life balance” programs to employees. This effort has come about because the demand for highly-skilled workers makes the job market increasingly tight.
In large measure, these programs have been created to provide more balance for women, allowing them time to handle both a family and a profession. Unfortunately, work-life programs are still falling short, as evidenced by the “quiet exodus” of “fast-track women with sought after skills and valuable company experience.”
“Until employers understand the real reasons women leave, their efforts to retain them are unlikely to succeed,” writes Pamela Stone, associate director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Center at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Stone’s research indicates that large-scale economic restructuring places special burdens on women who are trying to pay attention to the critical needs of their older children.
“The kids would come home, and there would be complicated things that they needed to talk about, and I had a sense that they were needing what I can provide and what the baby-sitter couldn’t,” explained one scientist who is also the mother of an 11 and 14-year old. “The high-tech work week is really 60 hours, not 40,” explained another mother. No mother can achieve balance when an employer requires that much of her time.
In addition, the re-structuring of the American workplace often results in bigger and bigger “corporations,” which, according to the women Stone polled, are more rigid, and less willing to accommodate the flexible needs of working mothers, especially those with older children.
Stone has three suggestions for employees who want to hang onto their skilled employees who are also skilled mothers:
- Stop accepting unquestioningly the “family” explanation for who women leave. Spend some time understanding all of the reasons.
- Be alert to consequences for working women and their families in the larger economic environment.
- Realize that parenting responsibilities do not end with maternity leave. Pay greater attention to the needs of mothers with school-age children.
- Ask your employees what will work best for them, then don’t be too quick to shoot down their proposals.
(Source: Stone, Pamela. “Keeping Gifted Women on the Job.” Boston Globe.)
| |
|
|
 |
